Transfer window shut, players now in place, and clubs up and down the country will now have to start working with the squads that they've got. Okay, so that's not quite true of Football League sides who can still make use of the Emergency Loan market, but it's close to the truth, in that those sort of moves take you into the world of short-termism, and in many situations have given us a poor return over the years.

We did make one recruit in the form of Jack Price from Wolverhampton Wanderers. I will be honest that I know next to nothing about him, bar what's stated on various online profiles, given that we've managed to pass Wolves going in opposite directions over the past two seasons. However, I did notice plenty of comments from Wolves fans on Twitter that painted their academy graduate in a positive light, with a few begrudging the fact that he wasn't in their first team and was being allowed to go out on loan in the first place.

Looking at a distance from what's going on at Molineux, my guess is that in getting his side promoted, manager Kenny Jackett has beefed up his squad for second tier football, and that Price has been one of his casualties during the early part of the season. It may turn out that he gets 'lost' at Wolves in this new squad, but from our point of view we've got a player who was good enough to play 30 times in a League One title winning squad, and come out of it having made a positive impression upon Wolves fans. So without having seen him play, that gives a positive enough vibe to suggest that we've recruited well there.

We had to, of course. The star of the season so far - and the Man of the Match votes back this up heavily - has been Simon Gillett, so to lose him for a while with a knee injury is extremely bad news. Although I think Gary was speaking in rough terms, having not had the full scan results back by Monday teatime, it seemed that the rough diagnosis from the Glovers medical team is that we'll lose Gillett for a month or so. We'll have to wait for the actual results to see if there is anything more serious lurking, and at that point I'm sure we'll then be also in a position to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to Price.

So in effect, transfer deadline day became a case of shopping for the 'essentials'. We couldn't have gone a whole month without Gillett, whilst James Berrett, Joel Grant and Liam Davis are still a couple of weeks away from comebacks. Hence to maintain our current numbers (of just eighteen available players!) Gary would have had to have brought in one midfield signing - if it hadn't have been Jack Price then you can pretty much guarantee that someone else would have walked through the door by 11.00p.m.

Gary did say yesterday that he was after one other player, but suggested that was a lower priority than his recruitment of Price. The implication was that it was someone who he thought stood a chance of going through on the day, but wasn't going to panic if it didn't. For whatever reason it didn't, and doubtless once the Emergency Loan window opens up I think we'll probably get a better clue as to why that was. Sometimes managers or players aren't willing to commit to their own sale until they've made sure that a corresponding incoming player can match the one they're sending out on loan.

I know people have been making a lot - since around June! - about the idea of bringing Shaun MacDonald back to the club on loan, but he's got a thigh injury at the moment, and there's little point in the Glovers committing themselves to a player who isn't fit, when the objective is to help resolve the immediate needs of a squad that is short of players due to the injury list! So whether Gary does or doesn't have any interest in him, nothing there would be sensibly considered until he's fit. Another time, another place.

I also suspect that with Price here on loan, and Joe Edwards looking far more effective when he's played in the centre of midfield, we have an obvious midfield pairing (with Kevin Dawson, Sam Foley and hopefully Berrett able to eventually cover) meaning that Gary's 'one in the pipeline' would be best served as a winger or a striker, where the goal return we've had from our opening six games has been somewhat paltry - just three goals netted by our own players from open play.

People big up the transfer window - certainly Sky Sports go overboard with it - but until the Emergency Loan window is scrapped it really isn't the big deal for Football League clubs that it is for Premier League sides. At ten o'clock last night, I counted that across the whole of League One (all 24 clubs!) there'd been three incoming signings, three loan signings and one free agent arriving. There were a few late additions to that total, but the vast majority of sides in our division didn't bring in any new players, so for clubs at our level I don't think it is realistically seen as the big be-all and end-all that it can be for top flight clubs. If FIFA get their way and ban Emergency Loans then the landscape will change significantly, but that's another story for another day.

Last week also saw the departure of Matteo Lanzoni to Cambridge United a couple of days ago. Although it's one less body on the training ground, his loss won't be noticed given that Gary wasn't playing him. I'd predicted his departure a month ago when I saw how little he'd been used in pre-season. With Seth Nana Twumasi having shown that he's a little closer to first team football than we'd previously thought, and with us yet to see Brendan Moloney in any sustained action, we've got plenty of cover in the right-back area at present, so if Gary wasn't going to play him, it was probably for the best that they parted company.

Not enough quality in the squad as demonstrated tonight. Wonder whether GJs absence until kick off is in disgust at lack of funding available? Interesting few days ahead I fear.
02/09/2014 22:33:00

Paul T said ...

Again after Portsmouth game there are relevant links. skive seemed to me to be blaming the defence but this and even last season teams can watch videos and play against us for half an hour and realise we are never going to trouble them score wise. When we inevitably let a goal in due to the pressure that brings our heads drop as we know then there is no real way back. we seem to be set up as we were in the days of Skivos reign and trying to just grab one goal. we don't run at defences ( started to against Barnsley second half) our crosses are shocking inc corners and free kicks and never reach our players.

How about putting Sokolik in midfield in front of back four he seems to have skill and moreover commitment.
Finally Keiffer seems a nice lad, too nice, as defenders just push him off the ball, no lower body strength. May have potential but that's not what's needed.

Relegation season nailed on if we play like this for long- and then what as we lost to league 2 side tonight!
03/09/2014 09:04:10

Dusty said ...

This is GJ's first complete rebuild of the defence as far as I can remember and this is where the problem is. Skivo referred to it in his post match comments. The back 5 needs to be sorted first so forget attacking midfield and forwards for now - Jack Charlton once said you have to not lose games before you can start winning them. A sound defence lets the rest of the team play.
03/09/2014 09:15:42

Stu said ...

We are not taking our chances to try and score and seem to be trying to walk the ball into the net which at any level is not going to work.
We miss some of the 'old guard' in defence.
I don't think we are going down, but bottom end of the league for sure.
Jack Price looked good though and bought a smile to my face after a miserable evening
03/09/2014 15:52:36

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